More "Sweeney" casting news

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 7:34pm

The production has found it's Tobias.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/92790.html

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 7:37pm

It's interesting that neither Lauren Molina or Manoel Feliciano list any instrument skills in their bios. Both, obviously, must play. Molina will surely be playing the cello, and Feliciano, if the London breakdown holds, will play the flute.

And I assume too, that Molina won't be wigged, and that her Johanna like her London counterpart will play the role as a brunette.
Updated On: 5/5/05 at 07:37 PM

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 7:44pm

Really? Joanna as a brunette? What is up with this production?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 7:45pm

Oh Baritone -- you haven't seen the pictures of the London production? They've only been posted twenty five times on this board!

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 7:51pm

I remember seeing some...Sweeney in a contemporary necktie, Mrs. Lovett wearing some funny hat...this production is going to be WEIRD. I'm looking forward to it though.

[jim]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 7:54pm

I saw it in London
Men dressed in white shirts w/ black ties.
Karen Mann as Lovett wore a red beaded mini skirt in Act Two. Strange but very compelling production. Very abstract.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 8:41pm

The top hat Lovett wears belongs earlier to Pirelli -- she dons it in "A Little Priest."

[M J R]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 1:31am

Manoel does indeed play SEVERAL musical instruments. He is phenominal.

[M_Jokay]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 2:22am

i think the one in texas sounds like it's actually going to be better.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 2:28am

Can someone direct me to the pictures? I must have totally missed that.

How will Johanna be played as a brunette, when they specifically refer to her "yellow hair?"

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 3:57am

Ms. Molina does indeed have yellow-isb hair, and does play the cello. She's yet another U of M grad.

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 2:30pm

This is my favorite show of all time and it seems as if the more news I hear the more I don't want to see the revival. I just figured out what the whole instrument thing is about and I find it to be soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo stupid. It might be intresting enough to be on broadway but I just think it will screw with the show to see Cerveis sing like for instance: "My Friends" and then go into the orchestra and play music for Green Finch and Linnette Bird. I find this rather dumb and I am just not liking what they are doing to this production. This show needs to have more than 2 star names credited. I really really think Hugh Panaro needs to play Anthony (He was phenominal) for a 3rd "Star Name" even if it means leaving phantom which he is sublime in. This revival seems like it will go down the tubes. "I hope it proves me wrong, I doubt it will"

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 2:32pm

Um...chill out.

Since when does SWEENEY TODD need to have a few "star names?" Since when is Michael Cerveris a star? Since when is Hugh Panaro a star? You are extremely closed minded here - wait until you see it to call it "soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo stupid." In this instance, it would appear as if it were you that is "soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo stupid."

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 2:35pm

I hope you prove me wrong, I doubt you will. And winning Tonys isnt proving me wrong. The show is loved by many and I will hope it suceeds but in the past it helps to have well known people. In 1979 it had Cariou, Lansbury and Garber. They are still really famous (though I havent heard anything from cariou latly) You ask how they got famous (other part of your post) well Lupone I dont need to explain. Cerveis won a tony for another sondheim show (and was also in Hedwig and the Angry Finch) and Hugh Panaro is currently playin the Phantom and in the poll here on BWW he was the second most popular phantom. I dont think it is needed for famous people (especially cuz im not famous and I hope to play Sweeney on Broadway) but it helps and I dont think many people are really into the concept. I am behind this show 100% and hope for success but I just think it might help to have well known people in the show. This is just my opinion and I dont like that you had to bash me on it. Once again I hope the show is well liked but well Im sick of quoteing Wicked so you know what im going to say. I hope it does well though.

Updated On: 5/6/05 at 02:35 PM

[TG4802]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 5:06pm

Check out the BBC review by Mark Shenton from the West End production:

Sweeney Todd (Trafalgar Studios at the Whitehall Theatre)

This year alone I've already seen Sondheim and Wheeler's macabre 1979 musical version of the Sweeney Todd legend in two orchestrally lush stagings at London's Royal Opera House and at New York City Opera (with Elaine Paige
starring in the latter).
"This version of the musical short-changes its audience on just about everything..."

Now, for its latest West End incarnation, the show has been shrink-wrapped, with a cast of just nine and no orchestra at all, since the actors play all the instruments themselves.

But instead of intensifying this claustrophobic, macabre tale of murder and cannibalism - as the demon barber turns his customers into a meat source for the pie bakery of his accomplice Mrs Lovett - it has been comprehensively diminished.

Mrs Lovett with a trumpet - or Pirelli (Todd's former employee and first victim) with an accordian - may be an intriguing novelty at first, but it soon wears off and you're left with a magnificent score being scratchily compromised with every note that is inadequately played or sung.

butchered


The story, too, lacks its own usually overpowering dramatic momentum. There are insufficient cast members to provide not only the proper sense of scale but the right number of people to be murdered, so several of the casual killings are simply cut.

But if some bodies are spared, the text has been butchered instead, leaving little sense of time or place.

This version of the musical short-changes its audience on just about everything, including the inflated price you have to pay to see it.

At £36 for the best seats, you get less of Sweeney Todd than you've ever seen or heard before.

Updated On: 5/6/05 at 05:06 PM

[Plum]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 5:15pm

Ooh, the pick-and-choose reviews that prove your agenda game! I love that one. Hold on; I'm searching for reviews that say the opposite. How much do you want to bet they'll outnumber the bad ones? Gotta love Google...

[Plum]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 5:18pm

One! The Guardian, mixed-to-positive, giving it 3 stars of 5.

This may not be the definitive Sweeney Todd but it proves that Sondheim's grisly masterpiece has an infinite adaptability.
Guardian

[TG4802]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 5:18pm

I didn't read any other reviews, not really worth the effort. The Shenton article supports my opinion, what of it?

[Plum]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 5:20pm

Not worth the effort? Then what was the point of posting it?

Ooh, look, a rave. Admittedly not from a very big source, but I'm just getting started.
Teletext

[Plum]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 5:22pm

Theater Guide London. Positive.
Theater Guide London

[Plum]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 5:25pm

Telegraph. A rave.

I think this will be the last one.
Telegraph